1st Quarter of 2024
LEAD PASTOR
Tim Park
The first quarter of 2024 got off to a great start with our Groups Fair on January 28. During the month of February (Missions Month), we focused our attention on the work God is doing both locally and globally. Also during the month, our Children’s Ministry and The Ascent co-organized our Five Love Languages Training Session for parents and children. In March, two of our families dedicated themselves and their children to the Lord, The Ascent enjoyed a spiritually enriching weekend at their retreat, and we ended the month and the quarter with a memorable Easter weekend. Praise God for an amazing first quarter. I invite you to read about all the great things God is doing in and through our church.
YOUTH PASTOR
Kevin Ahn
The Ascent (JH/HS)
Winter Retreat Recap - 3/22-3/24
Our students had an incredible time at the Winter Retreat. Our guest speaker took us through the book of 1John. Our volunteers were awesome and a great example of servant leadership.
Wednesday Night Midweek
Our Wednesday Night Groups are a great time of fellowship and gathering last semester. We averaged group sizes in the 20’s and were blessed with so many wonderful meals thanks to parents. Students can join our Wednesday night groups from 6:30-8PM.
Sunday Gatherings
Our Sunday gatherings have had regular turnouts in the high 30’s-low 40’s. We also recently started taking communion and plan to have the students participate in communion with the wider church body going forward.
Currently we are in a series titled “Sticky Faith” which is exploring spiritual disciplines.
Summer Retreat - 7/12-7/14
We recently announced our Ascent Summer Retreat at Thousand Pines Christian Camp. Retreats are a wonderful opportunity for our students to connect with God and one another. Registration completed by 5/27 for a $50 discount for students.
Summer Mission Trip - 6/9-6/14
We have 14 students signed up for the Ascent HS mission trip. We will be in Denver, CO working with a ministry called YouthWorks.
CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
Melissa Lobozzo
January - March 2024
The Children's Ministry started 2024 with new and engaging curriculum and activities. Beginning in January, we implemented The Gospel Project curriculum which adds video content for storytelling and memory verses to its robust curriculum. This new curriculum was also implemented in preschool to provide a consistent, age-appropriate curriculum across all ages. We also began an open prayer time Sunday mornings at 10:25am for our church family to join in praying for our children, leaders, and our Children’s Ministry. In the nursery, we added a staff member to the second service to provide consistency for little ones and additional assistance for our volunteers. With the shifting of our workroom from room 13 to room 16, we were able to get our second preschool room up and running to accommodate our 2 to 3 year olds separately as needed while construction is being made on the new Children’s Center.
In an effort to provide additional safety measures, we moved our mid-week programming from The Landing to our downstairs carpeted classrooms. During Wednesday Night Live, children are learning about the Armor of God through songs, videos, games, lessons, and crafts. They also enjoyed a special Valentine’s Day Party blessed also by the Face Painting Ministry.
Perhaps the most exciting time of this quarter was the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Children’s Center on February 11th. With most of our children in attendance, we honored the builders of the original Education Building, appreciated those who served as planners, and broke ground in preparation for future generations to grow in their faith at EFreeDB.
Working to strengthen children and families, we hosted our first training event of the year, The Five Love Languages. During this event, children, youth, and adults spent time learning the Love Languages and engaging in thought-provoking assessments to determine their own love languages. At the completion of the Parent Training, parents were offered a Parents Night Out while the children and youth enjoyed an EFree Movie Night watching The Prince of Egypt. We are thankful for the youth's help for this special event!
Throughout the month of March, children learned and rehearsed motions for the song This Is Our God by Phil Wickham. Then, on Easter Sunday, children ages 2 through 5th grade blessed our second service worshipers closing the Easter service by performing with the Worship Team. After service, children enjoyed refreshments and face painting on the patio.
What a busy and exciting quarter it has been! We are thankful for our faithful Sunday School teachers, Wednesday Night Leaders, Nursery Volunteers, Substitutes, and the new volunteers who have blessed our children’s ministry this quarter with their time and talents.
SHEPHERDING MINISTRIES
Jim Wes
The Shepherding Ministries Department had a solid winter of Caring and Connecting here at His church in Diamond Bar! We continue to have 5 Care and 8 Connecting (support-group-type) ministries and one more serving campus safety in the background. The first 13 are introduced on our exciting website home page (https://www.efreedb.org/care ). Each of the Shepherding Ministries meets regularly – please do join us!
Winter highlights include:
• Building a foundation for a new group ministry aimed at bringing connections, the Bible and fun times to our singles that are in their 50’s and beyond. EFree Singles 3.0 will be launching on Monday, April 15th, then the first and third Mondays each month, 6:30pm in the Wiggle room. The best 99 minutes you can have on a Monday – welcome your single friends to come join us!
• We have a very special cluster of people that have been through tough diagnoses, and the ugly chemo or other therapies that often follow the diagnoses. In the winter we had a coupla new friends start their own journeys. We prayed with them and are tracking their very encouraging progress. Our team loves to – and continues to - gather with those newly challenged. If you learn of a family or person carrying this new burden, please let us know so we can reach out!
As Spring starts:
• We are raising teams to visit the sick, and/or help out families with surprise or planned surgeries. Mealmakers, visitors and generally nice people are warmly invited to join a care team and bring prayerful smiles to these important corners of our church family.
Each of the Shepherding Ministries are continuing to connect our church with our church. If you’d like to be a part, please connect with Jim, . . . and he will connect you with a group or groups that might love to have you!
We are honored to serve with you - and excited to connect and care with you.
In His Love, Cindy n Jim Wes
DISCIPLESHIP (GROUPS) DEPARTMENT
Jim Wes, Acting Director of Group Discipleship
Until we hire a new Pastor to guide them, we’ve been striving to encourage & equip all the groups with new connections and opportunities.
We currently have just over 20 Groups that gather at various times & places with various structures & styles . . and One Lord.
Staff is here to support them, but the many group leaders, leader couples & leader teams are each doing a great job!
In January, we hosted a fresh spin on a fun tradition. …. January was “Join A Group” month, and it culminated on January 28 with our first “Group’s Fair” on the patio between and after services. We had donuts and a great turnout, almost every Group had their own table. More exciting; almost 10 families signed up to visit existing groups . . . 4 of our groups are so full now that we could split each in half and have 8 groups where the 4 currently stand – but we can’t fit! (see below) … Please pray for wisdom and courage as we “Grow and Split” within this exciting ministry.
Finally, at the fair 7 families came together to start a totally new Life Group, meeting on Wednesday…. Between Kids, Youth and Groups, we are now officially FULL on Wednesday evenings – INCLUDING BOTH ALTERNATING WEEKS – so if the Grow and Split groups wanted to meet on Wednesdays, we would need to meet in the Landing or the Sanctuary.
Good thing the new building will free up 7 more rooms!
Please DO JOIN A GROUP if you’re not in at least one! And visit Guest Central or talk to me if you’d like some choices of groups that would be blessed to have you with them.
We look forward to new groups splitting or sprouting in 2024 …. Maybe YOU’d like to lead one?
Please DO let me know if you’re ready to dive in – or maybe ready to try some training to see how this might be possible.
WORSHIP ARTS DIRECTOR
Eddie Lee
Thank you for reading the Worship Ministry quarterly report for April 2024. We introduced a new song called “This is Our God”! Much of this quarter was spent preparing for our Good Friday and Easter Services. We had a wonderful Good Friday Service on March 29th, remembering the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! On Sunday, March 31st, we partnered with the Children’s Ministry for an amazing service celebrating our Risen Lord! The children performed hand motions as the worship band played the song, “This is Our God”. It was so great to have all the children on stage worshipping through hand motion and song! A special thanks to Kailan Foster for sharing a special song called “Death was Arrested”. Also, congratulations to
two of our worship team members, Ken and Crystal, for getting married!! We’re so blessed to have you both serving alongside each other to bring glory to God through music!
FACILITIES
Mike Scaccia
IT related work
Maintain/troubleshoot computer systems, network, copiers and printers. Maintain and troubleshoot issues with fire alarm and security systems. Maintain church network including router/modem, switches, cabling, phones and WiFi. Format / resize artwork for the church’s website, social media, and print media as needed. Manage church Google G Suite including email accounts.
• Added security cameras for coverage of the outside of the front of the front offices.
• Monitor and apply security patches/firmware updates to network devices including switches,
wifi controller and access points. Regular software and OS updates of laptops for small groups
in use for presentations and Zoom meetings. Renewed licensing for various software suites for
worship service and front office.
• Providing support to Worship Team for livestreaming services.
• Maintaining and updating IP phones and security camera systems as needed.
• Set up support for weekday morning Bible study groups.
General maintenance & repairs
General maintenance including changing florescent lights, outdoor lighting, changing batteries in smoke detectors and motion sensors for alarm systems. General property upkeep. Plumbing and electrical repairs. Assist in hanging banners for various events.
• Support the Building Project team to help assess condition of the CE building structural
layout and systems (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, low voltage/fire system). Consult with
and monitor general contractor in prepping site for new addition and playground.
• Coordinated with building team to clear out CE building to store items in Pod & green
container. Move last of the preschool items to basement classrooms. Cleared out
e-waste and old furniture/equipment.
• Had floors waxed/polished in the Landing building.
General Worship Center / The Landing Duties
Monthly Terminix and gopher services. Monthly testing of AED device in the Landing. Setup / teardown for baptisms. Setting up for Life Groups and events (eg, Piano Recitals, Easter services event), including scheduling lights and AC.
• Maintain and update as needed, equipment/materials such as rugs for baptisms and
piano recitals, cleaning supplies for the new stage flooring, maintaining other PPE supplies
for campus.
FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE DEACONESS
Janet Clark
February 11 – Valentine’s Day
Valentine snacks were served.
March 31 – Resurrection Sunday
Lemon cake, fruit, cheesecake and snacks were served on the patio.
Upcoming Events:
May 12 – Mother’s Day
May 16 – Teacher Appreciation Dinner
MISSIONS LEADERSHIP TEAM DEACON & DEACONESS
Robert & Linda Rogus
Our church continues to support and sustain sixteen full-time missionaries. During the first quarter of 2024 the Missions Leadership Team (MLT) accomplished the following activities:
1. The MLT created a new EFree DB Missionary Booklet to share with our church that describes our 16 missionary units and how they are serving in missions.
2. The MLT planned and hosted the Missions Rally for our EFree DB missionaries. Six missionary units were able to attend the Sunday event (2/25/2024).
3. The MLT discussed summer short-term missions opportunities that would support and encourage EFree DB missionaries.
4. The March MLT meeting was postponed until April.
5. Calendar event: all those interested may attend the EFree DB Monthly Prayer Meeting for our Missionaries. Meetings are normally held on the 4th Friday night of each month on Zoom.
The MLT sincerely would like to thank our church for praying for and supporting our global
workers that are sharing the Gospel with unreached peoples.